A Brigham Young University student was recently named a recipient of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. This marks the 11th BYU student in six years to receive the national honor.
Matthew Winterton was recognized as a Goldwater Scholar, and Michael John Griffin and Steven Michael Kearnes were runners-up. BYU was only allowed to nominate four students.
The award is given to about 300 sophomore or junior students in the United States who stand out in math, science and engineering. Students are nominated by a college or university and selected by a national committee. The one- and two-year scholarships will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.
Winterton is a biochemistry major from Alpharetta, Ga. He has a 3.97 GPA and plans on pursuing a joint master’s/Ph.D. degree at a medical school and enter a career in biomedical research.
During the past school year, he worked with BYU professor Greg Burton studying the role of cells in the immune system as long-term reservoirs for the HIV virus. During the summer, Winterton was a biomedical research intern at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., where he worked with Daniel Fowler studying stem cell transplantation in cancer therapy. He will be returning to the NIH this summer.
A former missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Madagascar, Winterton is fluent in the Malagasy language and received a BYU ORCA grant in order to produce the first Malagasy-English frequency dictionary.
For more information, contact Carolyn Tuitupou at Carolyn_tuitupou@byu.edu or visit www.act.org/goldwater/.
Writer: Brandon Garrett
